B.B. King: The King of Blues Guitar, Emotion and Soul
Early Life
On September 16, 1925 Riley B. King was born on a cotton plantation in the Mississippi Delta region. For 18 years he plowed cotton behind a mule 30 miles a day, 6 days a week, for 6 months out of the year and $15 a month. You do the math!
During those years in Mississippi as a child, he was occasionally able to listen to recorded music through his great aunt’s phonograph. Sparks flew when he first laid eyes on a guitar, an instrument that another aunt’s brother would play during visits. The first time he heard an electric guitar was at church and of course he immediately fell in love. (King’s guitar, “Lucille” became famous as well. Listen to him tell the story of how the guitar got its name here).
The first guitar B.B. owned came from his boss, Flake Cartledge, a man he credits as “a fair man.” B.B. paid the instrument off by working the next two months and eventually, he began to make his way out of the cotton fields by spending Saturday afternoons in Indianola, Mississippi, busking on the street. Later, he traveled to Memphis, Tennessee, where he would really start making a career for himself.
In order to earn a steady gig and please the owner of a club called Ms. Annie’s in West Memphis, B.B. marched over to the first all black owned radio station in the country, WDIA, and asked for a spot. They tasked him with writing a jingle for a product called Pepticon, and it was a success, so much so that he eventually became a disc jockey at the station, earning the nickname “Beale Street Blues Boy” (later shortened to “Blues Boy”). And of course, he secured his first major gig at Ms. Annie’s, playing 6 nights a week. Listen to B.B. himself tell the full story here.
This was only the beginning of King’s career, of course. But it’s always interesting to me how musicians begin their careers and gain momentum that eventually propels them into the spotlight. In B.B.’s case, he achieved the impossible, making his way out of the cotton fields of Mississippi and becoming one of the world’s greatest and most widely respected guitarists.
Technique
B.B. King was one of those guitarists whose life experiences, emotions, intelligence, and relentless drive and curiosity have all influenced his sound. Often, he would hook audiences with just one or two notes. He was a master at playing sparingly, yet with a huge amount of emotion and soul. How did he do it? Here are some guitar techniques he used frequently:
Vibrato. B.B.’s vibrato was unlike anyone else’s. He released his entire hand from the neck of the guitar so he could rock his whole wrist back and forth extremely fast, leading the finger to affect the string more violently than if the hand was wrapped around the instrument. Also, the choices he made of when to not use vibrato greatly enhanced its effect in the moments that it was actually used.
Dynamics. I still don’t think I’ve seen another guitarist use dynamics as well and as naturally as B.B. His soft dynamics got the crowd yelling for more just as much as when the volume was turned up to 10. This is a good reminder to hold back every now and then. Understanding how soft dynamics can affect the emotion and feel of a tune is crucial for bringing that song to life. The magic happens when the fancy stuff is saved for the right time!
Picking. Sometimes B.B. plays so soft, you can almost hear the sound of the pick gliding over the strings more so than the actual notes being played. This delicateness can only really be achieved if the volume of the guitar is not turned down in order to achieve the soft dynamic, but instead the strings are plucked extremely softly. Another picking method he utilized was to muffle all strings except one, pick them all at the same time, leaving only the one string to ring out. It gives the note more character, especially during a fast or loud part of a tune.
Bending. Yes, I know I already mentioned this a few weeks back. But it would be a sin to not mention this technique in a post about B.B. King! If there’s anyone to learn how to bend strings from, it’s him. With ease, he would bend a string up three half steps and achieve perfect intonation, if he wanted. Sometimes he would bend the strings just enough to hear the microtones between the frets, which we cannot ordinarily hear from just fretting the notes. I’m sure he knew what pitch to reach for prior to bending a string, and could hear that note in his head, which is a great skill to develop for accuracy with string bends. (Please see my previous post and video about techniques for bending strings here).
Less is more. B.B. is the master of holding back, playing less busy, and honing in on a few notes which, played with the appropriate level of feel and soul, can hit harder than any crazy fast cluster of notes played by any master shredder out there. He picked his moments for faster runs, but he let the guitar breathe, as if playing a wind instrument. The pauses between guitar licks enticed audiences and captured their imaginations as they wondered what sounds would be heard next.
Major vs. Minor. In blues music, the pentatonic scale is king (no pun intended). B.B. adds emotion to tunes by switching seamlessly between the major and minor versions of this scale. This requires in-depth knowledge of the chords being played during the tune and what notes of which scales work with those chords. B.B. was also heavily influenced by jazz, so you may spot some of this influence in his playing as well, especially in his big-band style horn arrangements.
